After hours of trolling Lake Pontchartrain, search teams on Monday recovered the body of football standout Marquise Hill, a former Louisiana State University Tiger and current member of the New England Patriots, who disappeared Sunday night after falling from a personal watercraft.

Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Capt. Brian Clark said one of the agency's crews found Hill's submerged body using a dragnet about 2:20 p.m. The 24-year-old New Orleans native was not wearing a life jacket, Clark said. A strong current apparently carried him several hundred yards west of the spot near the mouth of the Industrial Canal where officials believe he went into the water.

Throughout the morning, as teams from Wildlife and Fisheries, the Coast Guard, the New Orleans Police Department and Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office searched the water, friends, relatives, business associates and current and former teammates of Hill's arrived at the boat launch under the Seabrook Bridge to keep vigil and hold onto to hope that he might be found alive.

Patriots cornerback Randall Gay, who was visiting family in Baton Rouge for the Memorial Day weekend, was among those who kept watch and expressed disbelief after Hill's death was confirmed.

"You don't think stuff can happen to somebody like that," Gay said about Hill, a 6-foot-6, 300-pound defensive end. "He's a giant."

Gay also played with Hill at LSU, where they were members of the 2003 BCS national championship team. They went on to join a Patriots team that won Super Bowl XXXIX in 2005. The Patriots have a practice Thursday, Gay said.

"I know it's going to be hard in that locker room, seeing his locker," Gay said.

Officials said Hill was riding a personal watercraft, initially described Sunday night as a WaveRunner, with a friend Sunday about 9 p.m. when both of them were knocked into the water, probably by rough seas and strong currents.

Hill and the woman called for each other, Clark said. A passing boater rescued the woman after she grabbed onto the base of the Seabrook Bridge, which crosses the canal. She also lacked a life jacket.

The boater tried to retrieve Hill from the water, but the football player went under and the boater couldn't find him, Clark said.

Orleans Parish coroner's spokesman John Gagliano said Monday that an autopsy will be performed today and that Hill did not appear to suffer any blunt trauma.

Hill's death was the second on Lake Pontchartrain over the holiday weekend. In Mandeville, the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office reported that a man died Sunday afternoon after diving into the water from a boat to rescue his wife from a stalled personal watercraft, but he never reached her. The St. Tammany coroner's office did not return phone calls Monday night, but television reports identified the victim as Kevin Tassin, 45.

The man also was not wearing a flotation device, investigators said Sunday. Clark said the incidents underscore the importance of using life jackets on the water.

Phoenix Ali, a friend and business partner of Hill's, said the woman who was with Hill was one of the athlete's childhood friends. Ali also would not identify her, but based on her report, he said, a disturbance in the water apparently knocked them off their craft.

"I think it was a wake, or wave, came through and kind of just tipped them over," Ali said. "He was yelling to her, telling her what to do and not to panic."

Ali said Hill had experience riding personal watercraft and was a strong swimmer who included swimming in his training regimen.

Inell Benn, Hill's fiancee, appeared at the search scene along with Ali.

"I just want to thank all the searchers," Benn said before Hill's body was found. "Please keep Marquise in your prayers."

Benn, Ali and other friends gathered under the bridge as the boats crisscrossed the water, and they joined a prayer led by the Rev. Eddie Luna of Edinburg, Texas, another friend.

Several of Hill's former teammates from New Orleans' De La Salle High School also gathered at the lakefront, where they talked about his warm and humorous nature. They said it was obvious in high school that Hill would make it in professional sports.

"He had a lot of natural ability, but he mixed it with the work ethic," said Jarred Keys, a high school teammate who remembers Hill spending more hours in the weight room than any of the other players. "That's what really put him head and shoulders above everybody else."

Therral Hatfield, another high school teammate, said Hill was both caring and charismatic.

"He could make you laugh," Hatfield said. "He wasn't an average cat. He wasn't an average guy. He was a big teddy bear."

Jason Gourrier said the other players in high school looked up to him.

"You wouldn't expect his character and personality to come out of somebody so big," Gourrier said. "He was a team leader."

Gourrier said Hill also had a welcoming way. The last time he saw Hill was when he ran into him at a gym about a year ago. Hill invited Gourrier to join his workout, and he showed his old high school friend his Super Bowl ring.

Hill's godfather, Altis Brown, said going to the National Football League changed nothing about his personality.

"You couldn't tell the difference," Brown said. "He was always low-key. You would never know the guy was an NFL star."

Hill had been helping his mother repair her eastern New Orleans house after it flooded in Hurricane Katrina, Brown said.

He said he had just visited the house Saturday, where Hill showed off a weight room and his watercraft.